Kazim-Richards: “We Can Push Even More”

Striker Colin Kazim-Richards believes there is a lot more to come from himself and his Derby County teammates as the Rams face a trip to Wycombe Wanderers in the Sky Bet Championship tomorrow evening (7:45pm kick-off).

The Rams head into the encounter with the Chairboys in good form, having picked up four wins out of five in the division.

Derby’s latest victory came at Pride Park Stadium in a 2-1 victory over Neil Warnock’s Middlesbrough on Saturday, with Lee Gregory scoring on his full debut for the club.

Kazim-Richards also got his name on the scoresheet, firing a fierce effort past Marcus Bettinelli in the Boro goal to put the Rams two goals ahead.

It was his third goal in his last four outings and his sixth for the season as the Rams moved out of the relegation places and up to 19th place in the table.

Next up for Derby is a trip to Buckinghamshire to face Gareth Ainsworth’s Wycombe, who head into the game on the back of a comeback victory against Huddersfield Town on Saturday.

Trailing 2-0, they turned the game on its head, scoring three times to earn a valuable three points heading into tomorrow’s night’s encounter.

Kazim-Richards, who joined the club in October as a free agent, knows the Rams need to continue doing the right things to get a positive result - and believes there is a lot more to come from the side.

“If you look at since the gaffer and the coaching staff have taken over, we are in the top five or six, so something is working,” he told RamsTV. “It is very nice to look at the table and the reality of where we were to where we are is nice.

“With all due respect, we should be higher, but the reality is this is where Derby County is at the moment and it is nice to say I have had a part in doing that, but the job is not done.

“We are not going to sit on our laurels and think we have done enough, because we haven’t. I think we can push even more and we have a lot more to give and we have got a bunch of honest guys who are willing to go and put in the work.

“Last week we worked hard, it is the first time for a while that we had a full week where we could train and we got a lot done, as you could see that from both goals.

“The first one was a set piece that we had worked on. When you work on something and are able to see it come to fruition, it is amazing in anything you do in life.

“For us to work on it and it come off, it was great.”

Five of Kazim-Richards’ goals for the Rams have been instinctive striker’s goals. Whether that be capitalising on a loose ball, anticipating a cross into the box and scoring or a headed finish.

On Saturday against Boro, the striker scored his first from outside the box, and what a finish it was. Laid off by Gregory, the Turkish international let rip from 25 yards and it thundered past the goalkeeper and in off the crossbar.

It’s certainly the best goal he’s scored for Derby, but was it one of the best of his career?

“It’s up there,” he replied. “I’d like to be in the box more. I think that’s what I’ve needed to work on since I became a number nine striker because I was always a left or right of a three, or with the Turkish national team I was a winger.

“I became a striker late in my career, about seven or eight years ago, I think. I know what I bring, I am very sure of what I can do.

“I have hit a few nice ones, but especially the situation we are in, it is up there at the top, definitely.”

Saturday was also the first opportunity he had to play alongside deadline day signing Lee Gregory, who joined the club from Stoke City on loan until the end of the season.

The pair linked up well together, with Gregory providing the assist for Kazim-Richards’ goal, and the striker was pleased to have someone alongside him in attack.

“I think we definitely implemented our type of style on the centre-backs and they had a difficult time which is credit to the coaching staff and to the team in the way we played and how we tried to play to our strengths,” he said.

“For me personally, it is good as well because there is someone else who can take some of the pressures and we can look at different things – sometimes teams might double up on either one of us and there is someone now on the other side.

“The link-up play for my goal was very good as well and Lee set the ball back to me and I was able to finish.

“Having another striker definitely brings something else to the team, I know it’s only one game, but you can see flashes of when we start getting comfortable of maybe what we can do.”